Among other things the document offered a promise that in the new nation all men are created equal Now Lincoln said Americans were fighting to see if a nation based on the ideals of liberty and equality could survive He told the audience The brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract The world will little note nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what these soldiers did here It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth Lincoln’s speech which was printed in newspapers around the country solidified Union support for the war and renewed hope that the nation could come together again and heal its wounds Everett sent a letter of praise to Lincoln saying I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes The World Takes Note Lincoln said at Gettysburg that the world wouldn’t note his words He was wrong In a eulogy for Lincoln after the president’s death in 1865 Senator Charles Sumner recalled the president’s speech The world noted at once what he said and will never cease to remember it the senator said The battle itself was less important than the speech More than 150 years later Lincoln’s speech remains one of the most famous examples of American oratory and schoolchildren still study it 8
President Abraham Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address on November 19 1863 The man who spoke the powerful words at Gettysburg had been president for two and a half years Lincoln had risen from a poor background to become the leader of the country during one of its most trying times He would live for only a year and a half after the speech An assassin’s bullet cut his life short on April 14,1865 just five days after the South surrendered and only shortly after Lincoln had begun his second term as president First sworn in as president in 1861 Lincoln would steer the country in a new direction toward the new birth of freedom for all Americans as he had spoken of at Gettysburg Fighting to hold the country together he used presidential powers as no president had before Future wartime presidents would look to the examples he set His policies would help connect Americans and lead to unprecedented growth of the United States Under his leadership as Lincoln had said at Gettysburg democracy would not perish from the earth 9
CHAPTER ONE FROM HUMBLE ORIGINS The small town of Hodgenville Kentucky was part of the American western frontier in the early nineteenth century Thomas and Nancy Lincoln and their young daughter Sarah lived nearby on a small farm Their home was a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor that Thomas had built There on February 12 1809 Abraham Lincoln was born Abraham’s parents were about the same age as the United States in 1783 which had won its independence from Great Britain only twenty-six years earlier Thomas was a hardworking farmer and carpenter Like many people on the frontier Thomas was illiterate but he was also a gifted storyteller as Abraham would be too Thomas Lincoln Abraham’s father opposed slavery 10
Thomas Lincoln built the family’s log cabin in Hodgenville Kentucky like this reproduction above Abraham was born there on February 12 1809 Nancy and Thomas opposed slavery which was legal in Kentucky at the time They attended a Baptist church where they heard antislavery sermons When Abraham was three a second son was born He lived only a few days In 1816 the family moved west into Indiana Abraham helped his father clear plow and harvest farm fields cut down trees and split logs into rails for fences He also took care of the farm animals but hunting and shooting animals disgusted him Two years after they arrived tragedy struck the Lincoln family and their community The milk of some local cows became deadly after the animals ate the poisonous plant white snakeroot People who drank the milk became ill with a disease called milk sickness Thirty-four-year-old Nancy Lincoln was one of several who died Her nine-year-old son Abraham helped his father build her coffin 11
